A closer look at NATO protesters and police van

Videos show dramatic confrontation

A video-recorded confrontation between a NATO protester and a moving Chicago police van was cited across social media as an example of police violence.

But a close examination of various news footage, as well as protester cellphone videos posted on YouTube, of the Saturday night episode paints a more complex picture. And that protester, who was pushed along by the van for several yards, walked away unharmed.

Beyond that, though, the examination can do little to clear up contradictory accounts given by police and protesters.

While protesters said one of their members was seriously injured, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy suggested to reporters that the protester faked injury.

McCarthy said the officer driving the van was punched and suffered a concussion.

Protesters claimed the officer deliberately drove into the crowd, but McCarthy said the marchers overran police and swarmed the van.

The videos capture a chaotic scene as a Saturday anti-NATO march wound down near Jackson Boulevard and the Chicago River. The spark was the police van, its siren chirping and blue lights flashing.

At least five protesters moved in front and around the van, with several holding up their cellphone cameras. One protester, a bearded man with a baseball cap on backward, appeared to fall to the pavement, and a male yelled "woo, woo" and "hey, film him." It's unclear what happened to him, but he doesn't appear to be the person taken away by the ambulance.

A second bearded protester in front of the van leaned into the vehicle as it moved through the crowd and clung to it as it surged forward, making for dramatic video on social media websites. He was seen walking away.

Other protesters pounded on the van with their hands.

At one point, a male leaned down to the van's right rear passenger tire. The protester then moved around the van, leaning down to the left rear tire before running back into the crowd.

Protesters noticed a male down on the street and started yelling "medic," calling for one of their street medics before he was finally taken away in an ambulance.

Chris Geovanis, with the Chicago and New Media Collective, said a protester was seriously injured by the police van. "We condemn the police violence," she said.

McCarthy said protesters sliced the van's tires and attacked the officer.

"I hope you all know the officer has a concussion and was injured," he said, "and the person who claimed injury was released from the hospital without being injured, OK?"